The Verisign SiteFinder “typosquat” rhubarb continues.
Update: I had to change the name of this piece as Bret Fausett, who joins me in slack-jawed amazement at this whole thing, beat me to the joke with his take here.
Kim Davies, of CENTR (the Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries), has posted a power point presentation on how SiteFinder works, and her reaction to it.
Verisgin FAQs and other info here.
John Berryhill makes the point on the INTA list that SiteFinder re-activates every domain name ever cancelled by UDRP or other decision.
Karl Auerbach pointed out on the GNSO list that unregistered names may have previously resolved to SiteFinder now, and are now ‘used goods.’
The Registrars Constituency of ICANN is considering moving to ask ICANN to ask Verisign to suspend the service.
The domain name VERISGIN.COM is for sale.
A search engine provider, Netster, has sued Verisign over the service.
The point has been made that the .MUSEUM TLD apparently utlizes the ‘wildcard’ technique utilized by SiteFinder and that ICANN had approved the technique.
My IT guy says “It’s as if Avis modified its GPS so everytime you entered a wrong address, it gave you directions to a Sears store.”
No comment from ICANN as of yet. SiteFinder returns this for www.whereisicann.com. UPDATE: This name stopped resolving to SiteFinder (hmmm) so instead I offer: